Subsea wellhead housings are generally cylindrical in shape and extend upward from the sea floor. During drilling, a BOP and riser assembly is typically joined to the wellhead housing with an external wellhead connector. Most wellhead housings have a groove profile at the upper end of their cylindrical outer surface. The groove profiles typically comprise a series of grooves or ribs which provide the wellhead connector with a means for gripping the wellhead housing.
Wellhead housings are provided in a variety of sizes, including 27 and 30-inch outer diameters. Unfortunately, prior art wellhead connectors have fixed inner diameters and, thus, are designed to be used with only one size of wellhead housing. Moreover, prior art wellhead connectors are not readily adaptable to be modified for use with wellhead housings of differing sizes. A wellhead connector which is easily adaptable to wellhead housings of various sizes within each family of wellhead housing design is needed.